This was written just after the Sandy Hook massacre, three years before the recent event in San Bernardino, CA. NPR reports that there have been 355 massacres this year in the U.S. (massacres defined as 4 or more people.) 462 people killed. 1314 injured.

 And yet we continue to watch it play out on t.v. Some will say that the press plays a part. Deranged people looking for publicity to acknowledge their senseless acts. Perhaps. Some say gun control. There are statistics that refute that.

We have thousands of brilliant researchers who could perhaps lead us to a solution in this country. But is anyone listening? Are the politicians listening? They call for more guns in the hands of citizens. They call for mental health care and provide no money to achieve it. They say watch your neighbors and people on the street, but we so often hide inside our walled yards, never look up from our cell phone screens, never walk down the street to meet a new neighbor.

There has to be a solution to senseless violence in a civilized country. And yet, the blog below was written in 2012 and it is 2015 and we have lost 462 lives. I’m feeling very discouraged that we simply don’t really care — deep down where it counts — maybe we don’t care. The first line of this 2012 blog asks a question. The answer it seems is a resounding “no.”